Russia will invade Ukraine from north for renewed attack on Kyiv, top mil commander warns

Russian troops are preparing to invade Ukraine from the north around the time that they failed to capture the capital Kyiv last February, Commander of the Operational Command South Major General Kovalchuk (48), a key architect of a major counter-offensive in the south of the country told Sky news in an interview. Russia's President Vladimir Putin will order newly mobilised millions of soldiers into the war in January as the offensive in these months appears to have greatly faltered due to the fierce Ukrainian resistance, Major General Kovalchuk noted. 

The top Ukrainian military commander noted that his armed forces would be "ready, even to combat millions of Russians" adding that he needs more weapons to counter the Russian fore power. More lethal support from Western allies is needed, he stressed, adding that this could include cluster munitions, the weapon several countries, including the UK, have banned. If a provision of such weapons is made, Ukraine will win the war, he stated, including the recapture of the occupied territories in Donbass and 2014 annexed the Crimean Peninsula. Kovalchuk also underscored the possibility of Russian troops invading via Belarus on Ukraine's northern border in order to attack the capital Kyiv. 

"We are considering a possible offensive from Belarus at the end of February, maybe later," Major General Kovalchuk said, speaking from undisclosed location in southern Ukraine to Sky news.  "We are preparing for it. We are investigating. We look at where they accumulate strength and means. We are preparing," he said. 

Russians will mobilise 200,000 soldiers 

Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, Valerii Zaluzhnyi, warned that Russians are preparing to mobilize another 200,000 new soldiers; and that he has no doubt "they will attack the city of Kyiv again." Russia may be planning to launch a new offensive on Ukraine “as soon as January, but more likely in the spring,” Valerii Zaluzhnyi, commander-in-chief of Ukraine's Armed Forces, told the Economist in an interview.

He cited the history, referring to two Chechen wars that Russia fought, stating that it was the same. Even though the Russians may not be as well equipped, "but they still present a problem for us," said Ukraine's military chief.  "Russian mobilisation has worked. It is not true that their problems are so dire that these people will not fight. They will. A tsar tells them to go to war, and they go to war," Zaluzhnyi noted.